EDITORIAL: Outrage, without action, won’t help victims

The image of a 200-pound man punching a woman in the head with such force that it renders her unconscious would be startling at any time. But, when the man is a professional athlete and the conduct also includes him callously dragging her limp body out of an elevator, the video becomes the center of a firestorm.

Such is the case of the National Football League and Ray Rice, who was released by his team last week — then indefinitely suspended by the league — after additional footage surfaced showing Rice actually striking his then-fiancée — now wife — in a New Jersey casino elevator in February.

The subsequent furor regarding Rice’s behavior, his original two-game suspension and conjecture over whether the league had the full video when it imposed the original, anemic ban jeopardizes a true opportunity for a substantive dialogue on a nationwide epidemic.

And that shouldn’t happen. If anything, it’s time to mobilize behind our domestic violence shelters and law enforcement community to help them raise awareness, find better solutions and reach out to those who have been victimized by this insidious plague.

How many of us have seen what appears to be an argument gone too far or a public display of anger and thought to intervene, only to back off at the thought of being nosy or for fear of retaliation? Can we legitimately say that we’ve done all we can to help those victimized by abusers? How many of us cast a wary eye at the woman who filed charges, then asked for them to be dropped, or went back to live with the abuser?

We can push to hold law enforcement, prosecutors and judges accountable – and they should be accountable – but the general public needs to be accountable as well. We must be educated on the warning signs of abuse and learn to speak up, even when the abuser is someone we know or even admire.

In 2012, law enforcement officers made 35,006 arrests for domestic violence in Ohio and another 6,047 incidents resulted in another criminal charge. Another 27,224 incidents were reported and no charge was filed, according to numbers from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

In Ross County, 241 arrests for domestic violence were reported and another 76 resulted in another charge, while 88 resulted in nothing. In Pike County, 222 arrests for domestic violence or another charge occurred, while just nine resulted in no charge filed.

Who will challenge those numbers? Who will intervene to help those who are abused?

The Ray Rice video is disgusting and horrible, but it shouldn’t take a public figure’s grainy video to make us understand that domestic violence is pervasive in our communities. Occasional outrage only works when it’s channeled into actual action.

Let’s not waste an opportunity to talk about what normally is ignored.